Gaff rigging

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Slowly trying to accumulate knowledge here (but damn it's like trying to drink from a fire hose! Soooo much information out there!), and wanted to see if I understood this correctly. (I am looking at the picture of the Royaliste on www.theroyaliste.com) The gaffs are the spars angling diagonally from each of the masts, correct?

It seems that they are mounted to a pivot at the base of the gaff. Yes?

If so, do they only pivot up and down? Or is it part of a rig that moves

side to side as well?

Why would a gaff-rigged ship be preferred over other types of rigging? Does it give better speed, more maneuverability, an extra place to hang swabbies from?

Thanks.

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:) A starting point. Sails that rig fore and aft, the heads'ls, main, and mizzen, are all of two styles. Older period vessels such as mine are gaff-rigged. More modern vessels are Marconi rigged. The difference most apparent is that Marconi sails are triangular, with the point at the top, and gaff sails are more rectangular, with an extra boom at the top of the sail to hold the top edge. the first appendage from the mast is the boom. This holds the bottom edge of the sail. The gaff holds the top edge, and the leading edge is held to the mastAll booms pivot up,down,port and starboard. The gaff is way adjustable up and down to shape the sail for more rig tuning.As a warship, the gaffs remain in the air at all times, ready to make sail in an instant by loosening the brails. A conventional gaff-rigged boat would lower the gaff to the main boom, furling the sail between them. Gaff rigged vessels have less upwind performance than Marconi rigs, but sail offwind and downwind better. No, we've got proper yardarms for hanging swabbies. The throat of the gaff is a fork, and rather fragile.....

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As usual, your answers generate about a hundred new threads of research.

About brails: You used it as a noun, but all references I have run across use it as a verb: i.e. "To gather the Mainsail to the Mast"

Fun with Synonyms: Spreaders, Crosstrees, Yardarms, Booms. The same thing?

Also, since you used offwind and downwind separately, I'm assuming that in this case offwind means "from the Quarter?"

Have you ever thought of offering a "Total Immersion" package, like they do for other foreign languages? You know, live on board and hear nothing but shipspeak for a month or twelve, until you can't help but understand. (For some reason, the campfire scene from 13th Warrior popped into my head).

Thanks, Gary.

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........Hmmm..O.K., Brails are the lines on period rigged ships that do the verb you refer to. Brails are worked from deck. Buntlines do the same, but you must go aloft to run them. Crosstree is a misnomer for a lot of things not understood by a writer. Spreaders are mostly found on modern Marconi rigged boats. They are short horizontal spars that hold shrouds away from the mast. I've already explained booms. Yardarms are horizontal spars that hold the tops of square -rigged sails, top gallant, tops'l,main course.,cross jack yard, sprits'l yard. So, none of them are the same thing. Offwind is all points past straight on the beam.These positions are various reaches. Downwind is just that, 180 degress off wind, with the wind on your stern. This is the true direction of square-rigger designs.Also called running off. Yes, I do intensive onboard sail training, but since I'm a foriegn vessel, I don't operate commercialy(yet). So, one needs to be a pirate, know me or a crew member, and have a pocketful of desire and Yankee Frogskins.......

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........Hmmm..O.K., Brails are the lines on period rigged ships that do the verb you refer to. Brails are worked from deck. Buntlines do the same, but you must go aloft to run them. Crosstree is a misnomer for a lot of things not understood by a writer. Spreaders are mostly found on modern Marconi rigged boats. They are short horizontal spars that hold shrouds away from the mast. I've already explained booms. Yardarms are horizontal spars that hold the tops of square -rigged sails, top gallant, tops'l,main course.,cross jack yard, sprits'l yard. So, none of them are the same thing. Offwind is all points past straight on the beam.These positions are various reaches. Downwind is just that, 180 degress off wind, with the wind on your stern. This is the true direction of square-rigger designs.Also called running off. Yes, I do intensive onboard sail training, but since I'm a foriegn vessel, I don't operate commercialy(yet). So, one needs to be a pirate, know me or a crew member, and have a pocketful of desire and Yankee Frogskins.......

Which brings up another question...well, actually several dozen more questions, but I'll research the others and just ask this one: The Royaliste flies US colors, but is considered a foreign vessel? Is that due to ownership, registry, the fact that she was French-built, some bureaucratic geek's Magic 8-Ball?

I have read references to ships being registered in other countries in order to exploit loopholes in certain laws (your basic espionage-type airport novel), which implies a certain amount of freedom in registering, but have never run across any breakdown of the registry system itself, so it could have been artistic license.

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....The Royaliste flies at least four 'colors' at present (hell, she's a pirate ship,fer bloody 'eck), Canadian built, documented, British registry and certification yntil last year. Bureaucratic B.S., yes. Any more is entirely too much laundry to air on the internet.

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Would a barquentine be considered a square-rigged or a gaff-rigged vessel? It's got both, but two masts are gaff-rigged, and one square-rigged. Just curious if it's a 'Majority rule' when it comes to classification, or if it's classified according to what's on the fore-mast.

To my mind a Barquentine is a Barquentine, by definition both Gaff (fore `n aft) and square rigged, also, having a foremast and no mizzen could be described as belonging to the Schooner family and are indeed often refered to as Schooner ships.

Though with only one mast, the foremast being square rigged and all the rest, up to five (six masted Barquentines were mostly American) being Gaff, they were of course predominantly Gaff rigged . :angry:

If I were forced to put a barkentine into a category, I'd have to say she's square-rigged simply because she has her fore completely square-rigged. Just as a hermaphrodite brig is considered a square-rigger, though one mast is gaff-rigged, a barquentine should be given that description as well. Granted, this is personal opinion. Furthermore, I just don't believe that a barkentine could sail well without her squares set. Therefore, you would always see squares set except for special circumstances (getting underway, etc.). Then again, I'm rather generous about labeling things square-rigged, as I consider square tops'l schooners square-rigged as well. Yes, I know that they're primarily gaff rigged (usually), but they have a square sail. Therefore, they're both gaff and square rigged. Why not overlap terms?

Coastie04 :angry:

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Hmmm. What I was looking for I guess was a fill-in-the-blank answer. Something along the lines of “I have a barquentine. She’s a ______-rigged vessel.” But I see where that would be kind of hard to do.

I just kind of put a peg down at random to start learning about the different terms and ships; you know, starting to sort them out according to some kind of classification. Perhaps it would be better to pick a single type of ship, and totally deconstruct it, then move on to another and note the similarities and differences.

Or maybe I’ll have a neural shunt installed and cram it in Matrix-style. :angry:

Thanks to all of you for the feedback. I do appreciate your patience with the swabbie/newbie stuff.

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...To most of us on the registry that live aboard Tallships, if it runs squares, it is usually refered to as a square-rigger, even tho gaff rigged also.This includes tops'l schooners. At the time, the only fore and aft rigged vessels were gaff or stays'l rigged. As far as the Bark concept, my first mates former vessel, the Renegade III, former 4th largest sailing ship on the West Coast, now sunk off the Mexican coast, was a Bark that sailed like a witch at 110 feet and made of ferrocement without her squares. Sailing effiency also has a lot to do(mostly) with hull design, not sail plan.